Prediction of the near wall flow behaviours of separation and transition for NREL phase VI wind turbine blade

ABSTRACT

This study demonstrates the separation and transition flow behaviour around a 3-D wind turbine blade by analysing blending functions, intermittency, and transition onset Reynolds number in SST Gamma Theta model. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory Phase VI rotor was modelled for the analysis. The simulations were executed by using the ANSYS-CFX solver. Extensive comparisons were performed to demonstrate the accuracy of this numerical model for sectional pressure distribution, tangent force, normal force, thrust, and torque. Good agreement was observed in all wind speed cases. The discrepancies in pre-stall region were negligible, and those in the post-stall region were acceptable. Thus, the capability and accuracy of the SST Gamma Theta model in predicting separated and transitional flow effects were verified.

KEYWORDS:

• CFD
• SST Gamma Theta
• blending function
• separation
• intermittency
• transition onset Reynolds number

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Center for Energy and Environmental Sustainability (CEES), a CREST Center (Award No. 1036593).